John Carmack Quits Meta and Says, “This Is My End in VR.”

Our efficiency is the problem.

Some may ask, “Why do I care about the progress as long as it is occurring?”

To win others’ trust, I would suggest that an organization that has known inefficiency is not ready for competition or tightening belts. But, in reality, it is the personal pain of seeing a 5% GPU utilization rate in production. It offends me.

[edit: Sorry, I was being poetic. Many people have misunderstood my intention. I am a systems optimization specialist and care deeply about efficiency. If you have worked hard for optimization all your life, it is difficult to see something that is inefficient. I likened watching our organization’s performance to seeing a terribly low number on a profiling instrument.

We have an inordinate amount of resources and people, yet we continually self-sabotage our efforts and waste effort. This is not something I can sugarcoat. I believe our organization operates at half the efficiency that would make me happy. While some may laugh and claim we are doing fine, others will say “Half?” Ha! I’m at quarter efficiency!”

It’s been a struggle. It feels like I have the ability to influence decisions at the top levels of government, but I am not persuasive enough. A lot of the things that I complain about end up in my favor after a few years. However, I’ve never been able set a direction or kill stupid things before they cause harm. Although I believe my influence has been positive, it has not been a major mover.

Fill your products with “Give A Damn” to make better decisions!

This was admittedly my fault. I could have moved to Menlo Park and waged battles with generations leaders after the Oculus acquisition, but I was too busy programming and assumed that I would hate it, be terrible at it and lose anyway.

Let’s not complain. I’m tired of the fight, and now have my own startup to manage. But the fight is still possible! Meta is the best company to bring VR to the masses. It is possible to achieve this goal by simply continuing with current practices. However, there are many ways to improve.

His clarification clarifies that while his comments might seem harsh, they are not related to anyone he worked alongside or any decisions made above him. These comments are more about his passion for the idea and process of optimization. This is a major structural and systemic issue that can be frustrating for someone who used to write code and launch rockets into space.

This is normally the section of a story in which I drop some conjecture. Maybe about how such high-profile departures might spell trouble for Meta’s efforts to stay relevant. But I think Meta is doing a great job of shouting it from the rooftops.